So, you have your estate plan in place. If you did it more than a few years ago, have you reviewed it? Does it still make sense for your needs? Are your accounts and beneficiary designations correct? Take some time to double-check and actually schedule a time to talk with your estate planning attorney to review your plan.
I raise this issue because of a new client I recently helped. They initially did their estate plan over 50 years ago. Over the years, they updated their estate planning documents and made some changes along the way. They had come to me because they wanted to change attorneys and wanted to update their estate plan so that it made sense for their current needs and desires.
Following my meeting with them, I checked to see how their assets were titled. Their accounts did have a beneficiary assigned. Unfortunately, the accounts did not list the correct beneficiary. Based on how the beneficiary designations read on their accounts, nothing was going to go the way they wanted. It turns out that over the years, although they updated their estate planning documents, they didn’t know that they also needed to update how their assets were titled.
We were able to correct the beneficiary designations and update their estate plan. Now their estate plan is all set. They understand however that they will need to continue to monitor not only how their documents are set up but how their assets are titled. A lesson learned and a disaster averted.
